Losses From General Motors Bailout Close To $10 Billion

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) announced a $1.1 million share offering on Thursday, but that’s just a small fraction of what the company still owes to taxpayers because of the bailout. Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times reports that taxpayers have recouped about $32.5 billion of the $49.5 billion that the government used to bail out the automaker.

U.S. Treasury Still Owns GM Shares

At this point, the government still has 189 million shares of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). That’s worth around $6.5 billion when using the price at which the U.S. Treasury sold its GM shares this week.

The Treasury department intends to sell off the rest of its GM shares over the next 15 month, hopefully at the same price or higher. All told, Hirsch said it looks like taxpayers will be out $10 billion over the government’s bailout of GM.

As of this writing, shares of GM were up 1.48 percent in Friday afternoon trades at the New York Stock Exchange.

Treasury Department Has Recouped Most Bailout Funds

Officials with the Treasury say the point out of the bailout was to prevent the industry as a whole from failing and saving the jobs that exist within that industry. They said it was never about making a profit. Officials said so far the department has recouped 95 percent of the funds paid out through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which funded General Motor Company (NYSE:GM)’s bailout and others. That adds up to almost $400 billion of the $420 billion the department paid out under the fund.

General Motors’ Current Status And Plans

General Motors has been profitable consistently since it came out of bankruptcy about four years ago. The company is regaining ground in the U.S., although it still is losing money in Europe.

Along with the share offering that was announced on Thursday, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) said it was also expanding its vehicle maintenance program in an effort to build customer loyalty. It added 2014 Chevrolet, GMC and Buick models either leased or bought since May to the program, which covers oil changes, tire rotations and other basic scheduled maintenance for either 24,000 miles or two years, whichever comes first.